“The L.P.G.A. needs its stars right now.”

Reader Tim enjoyed Karen Crouse's pre-U.S. Women's Open look at the role motherhood plays in LPGA career decisions, focusing on Cristie Kerr's choice to put off child rearing to pursue her career. But as Tim notes, there is one major oversight in the piece: 2009 Women's Open Championship winner Catriona Matthew, who won just eleven weeks after giving birth.

Every day, Stevens said, they talk about starting a family. At 45, he gets paternal pangs watching a television commercial with a father frolicking with his children, but is careful not to press Kerr about having a baby.

“There’s a little pressure on her,” he said. “The L.P.G.A. needs its stars right now.”

For Kerr, the impediment to motherhood is golf, and there is no automatic relief. A woman’s athletic prime and her peak child-bearing years are like carbon copy pages in her reproductive calendar. A woman’s fertility peaks in her mid-20s and declines sharply after the age of 35, a real conundrum for golfers, whose games, like the courses they play, take years to mature.

“I really feel like I can be No. 1 in the world,” Kerr, 32, said before this season. “I feel like I’m just coming into my golfing prime. I’m just starting to be in the best shape of my life.”

Meanwhile the SI boys are smitten with Kerr after she made an office visit to tape a video for the severely overpriced ($4.99) iPad edition:

Gorant: Kerr was in the office last week, and I can tell you she's brimming with confidence, deservedly. Almost feels like too obvious a pick though. Someone will surprise, especially on a course like Oakmont, which seems to be all about the unexpected.

Herre: Look for Cristie in this week's SI iPad edition, where there's video of her taking the Pop Culture Grid quiz.

Van Sickle: Watch out for Hilary Lunke and Birdie Kim.